Blair had stopped breathing due to shock. The sight of food still lingered in his mind. However, what can he do with his thin arms that had more similarities with twigs? He needed food to regain strength, but that required strength in the first place to fight. It was a vexed issue, and his stomach reminded him about it by growling.

Though he knew where to get food. It would require him to make a difficult decision. A short but sturdy person lived next to him, and he had just hoarded bread. His only chance would be during the night when the man slept. Yet that time brought its own danger. The pathways became deathtraps, and if they managed to get into the cave, the owner could awake at any point.

However, despair birthed courage, and it might be the last chance before Blair starved. So he took the risk at midnight, scaling the slope. He moved on all four, fumbling his way forward once more. The little moonlight barely penetrated the cave. It created a little spotlight in the middle of the pit, but Blair was shrouded in darkness. A couple of stones rumbled through the crater as Blair kicked them loose. Their sound at night was like thunder. A little part of his soul left him as he feared waking people up, but there was no way back.

The otherwise short distance appeared to be endless. Sweat dripped down Blair’s head as he finally reached his target location. He waited for a moment, recuperating first. At the same time, he listened for any signs, snarls, or snorts but heard nothing.

It took him a couple of minutes until he could go again. He took an extra moment to steel his resolve. He had thought about what would happen once he got inside the tunnel, and he only saw one option. Kill. It would be pitch black in there, and he would never see a loaf of bread even if it was right in front of him. Additionally, the risk of the owner waking up was ever-present. He was determined, but his body hesitated. Once he went in, there would be no going back.

The crater had numbed his good nature. All that remained was a desperate shell of a man. There was nothing more important than his survival. He picked up a stone, big enough to crush a skull, and went inside.

He stopped every couple of meters, listening. That continued until he heard someone breathing. It was very faint, but his hearing was at an all-time high, even hearing his own heartbeat. He approached until there was barely a meter between him and the man. His morals made him halt one last moment, and he thought about his action if he wanted to go down that path. The answer remained the same. His hands tightened, and he started to bleed as his fingernails bore into the skin. One arm was in the air, holding the stone, and the other searched for the man’s head. Then he struck. There was no struggle, only a crack, and hot blood spraying onto Blair´s face. The metallic smell crept into his nose.

That was it? He asked himself. For a moment, reality seemed so far away as never before, but then he remembered. What he had just done and why. His still tense hands loosened, dropping the stone. The sound frightened him.

His instincts got a hold of him, and his body searched automatically. It took him a few seconds to find the food hidden under the man’s clothes, and Blair munched it down in ecstasy. He didn´t feel shame or nausea while eating the crusty bread next to a dead man. The crater had robbed him of everything. That moment was like a switch turning.

He dropped down next to the dead man. It was the best to sleep with a full stomach. The nightmare didn’t scare him. Instead, he woke up refreshed and as good as new. The light of day shined into the tunnel and let Blair see the dead man. He stared eyes wide open at him. Blair closeed his eyes.

He wanted to leave, but an intense pain stopped him. It suddenly overwhelmed his body and made him cower on the floor. He held his head due to headaches. What was happening? A question he couldn’t answer.

The pain intensified near his stomach and became unbearable. Soon Blair’s eyes lost focus as his consciousness faded. Due to this, the pain decreased rapidly. Suddenly a soothing feeling rushed through his body. Blair welcomed the change. A sense of joy comforted him. However, it was accompanied by a desire for blood. He knew that feeling, but couldn’t remember from where. Thinking at all was hard with such pain.

All the feelings combined into a strange cocktail. At that moment, it dawned on him. The bloodlust he felt was the same as the nightmares. One thought fought its way through his mind. Resist. That was everything he needed. He ignored all the false joy that took his pain away.

For that, the pain and agony returned tenfold. They crashed down on him. Blair even lost consciousness for a while, but once he regained it continued resisting. His cries echoed throughout the crater. Red smoke rose from his body. At that point, he thought he had gone bonkers. Now he hallucinated. The pain was too much for one person to bear, but he would rather destroy himself than become a waste like all the others.

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The red smoke grew and formed an aura around his body. The pain had reached an all-time high. He was about to break, but the aura retracted spontaneously. The pain vanished. It was like nothing ever happened aside from a faint headache still lingering. That dumbfounded him. He was ready to destroy himself, but now? It was fine.

The first thing he did was scan his surroundings, but the crater was quiet, awfully quiet. Not one person was out and about. Instead, they hid from something. That was fine with him as he needed to rest. He was battered and exhausted, walking into the deeper parts of the tunnel. There he fell asleep.

The pain returned the following days. It remained a walk on a knife's edge. Ultimately, the pained reached a maximum after a week. Blair felt like shit, and the constant fear of the next outbreak drove him nuts.

Over the time he realized that there was something inside him. It was part of him, yet alien, demanding violence. Its influence had grown over time. By now, he wasn't sure what his own thoughts were.

During one outbreak, the red smoke blew up in small explosions. It didn’t hurt but shocked him. He touched it. His fingers glided through the red energy, feeling cold and strangely ruthless. It somehow fascinated him, and he felt a faint connection. That was underneath all the madness and bloodlust. Then his thoughts cleared up. He somehow understood the feelings. They were mere symptoms of a greater meaning. Suddenly, everything made sense, and he felt the alien thing in his stomach. It shared a connection with the energy, but Blair’s had just become the stronger one. He used that chance to crush that alien thing. The red smoke rushed back, attacking in a frenzy. Soon the feeling he got from that thing grew faint. At the same time, the connection with the energy increased magically. He clearly felt the energy in his flesh, fusing with himself.

An added benefit was the pain vanishing like an illusion. The torment ended with that. The pain never returned, nor did the nightmares. Now he could entirely focus on surviving. That was something he had to neglect in the past week. Surprisingly his body felt really well for barely eating anything. The last breadcrumbs were long since gone, but now? He experienced the urge to move around, maybe fight. It was so intense that Blair had to hold himself back from wasting energy. The only reason to go out was food. The opportunity for that presented itself soon.

The cultivator came back. Blair was eager to collect his own share. He darted down. The other people did the same, just slower, wasting time to fight. That gave Blair the edge. He quickly managed to shove some loaves of bread into his clothes.

Meanwhile, the cultivator hovered in the air, spectating the show. During an opportunity, Blair glanced at him. The cultivator looked another way. It was for a short moment, but Blair could have sworn that he saw a satisfied smile on his face, a frightening sight. Blair felt a shiver run down his spine and lowered his gaze. Then he bolted. His mission was accomplished.

In the meantime, the pit had become a battlefield on all fronts. People rushed in from all sides. Blair slightly changed his direction towards a spot where the slope was impassable. Few people were in that area, perfect for his escape. He waited for an opportune moment to climb a passable section. Until now, he had managed to avoid conflict.

Then he climbed up. It went perfect until he noticed a woman homing in on him. Misleading a pursuer had been easy so far. All Blair did was break the line of sight. He usually hid behind a couple of other people, but this time there were none. There was no other way than to fight. The woman came closer. Soon Blair saw her muddy face under the bird’s nest that were her hairs. He recognized Emily. His initial will to fight wavered. She was once his companion, but times have changed. People change.

She crashed into him, making both of them roll down the slope. That fucking hurt, being wounded in real life was something else than in a dream. However, his initial daze quickly went away. He got on his feet and scanned the surroundings for her.

She was a couple of meters below him, a shallow shell of her former self. Emily charged, screeching angrily. Blair would fight and give it everything he had. The energy inside him boiled up, emitting fume from his skin. Sorry, Emily. Blair thought for a moment as he made a jump kick, hitting her right in the chest. His strengthened body hit like a truck.

She flew through the air, crashing loudly onto the rocky slope. Her impact made a dull sound. Blair glance at her one more time. She was laying there, gasping for air and barely moving. She didn’t deserve that. Blair felt sorry for her, but couldn’t waste any more time. He left after collecting his food. He had spent more than enough time out in the open.

He was just about to relax in his tunnel as he felt the energy boil over. Madness tried to get a grip on him. His heartbeat sped up. Blair didn’t understand what was happening. He grabbed his chest, where his heart was. It pounded strongly. The energy went rampage in his body. He endured it as there was nothing he could do until his heartbeat normalized. He felt a hint of bloodlust remaining in his mind. It was like poison. That damn energy was just as bad as everything else. He had to use it only for emergencies from now on.

After that experience, he got used to the rhythm of the crater. The cultivator came to feed them. Blair acted smart and survived. The people fought like mad dogs, slowly developing a red hue like himself. It flared up during the fights. Months passed.